Brain plasticity,learning, and developmental disabilities

This is a time of significant gains in methodological development for examining the developing human brain. New efforts are underway to unify the understanding of the development of brain anatomy with physiological, cellular and molecular processes that influence behavioral development. This special issue provides animal models of behavior and brain development, applications of noninvasive imaging and genetic methods to human brain development and behavior, and select reviews of how these models and methods have been applied to the examination of developmental disabilities. This issue reflects a sampling of current approaches to the study of brain plasticity, development and learning in typically and atypically developing humans and animals.     

Nature over nurture: temperament, personality, and life span development

Temperaments are often regarded as biologically based psychological tendencies with intrinsic paths of development. It is argued that this definition applies to the personality traits of the five-factor model. Evidence for the endogenous nature of traits is summarized from studies of behavior genetics, parent-child relations, personality structure, animal personality, and the longitudinal stability of individual differences. New evidence for intrinsic maturation is offered from analyses of NEO Five-Factor Inventory scores for men and women age 14 and over in German, British, Spanish, Czech, and Turkish samples (N = 5,085). These data support strong conceptual links to child temperament despite modest empirical associations. The intrinsic maturation of personality is complemented by the culturally conditioned development of characteristic adaptations that express personality; interventions in human development are best addressed to these.     

New assessment systems for residential treatment,management, research,and evaluation: A symposium

An introduction and overview are presented to new observational assessment systems for ongoing assessment and monitoring of both staff and resident (client or patient) functioning in residential treatment programs for emotionally disturbed and mentally retarded adults.Preparation of articles and the research and development on which the articles are based was supported, in part, by Public Health Service Grants MH-15553 and MH-25464 from the National Institute of Mental Health, and by grants from the Joyce Foundation and the Illinois Department of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities.A symposium presented at the 87th Annual Meetings of the American Psychological Association, New York City, September 1979.     

Religious belief,ethics, biological principles and assisted conception

New reproductive technologies present ethical challenges to religious believers. In order to distinguish beneficial applications from harmful ones, believers should be guided by religious teachings and also be aware of current scientific knowledge. In this paper relevant spiritual principles from Baha'i writings are outlined and it is suggested that Christians and Muslims may identify similar principles in their own sacred texts and religious authorities. Medical procedures in assisted conception are also described, and it is explained that biological development from gametogenesis to birth is a continuum of processes rather than a series of events. It is suggested that ethical debates about the moral status of the embryo and related ethical issues do not lead to agreement on a single spiritually significant point in development, but in the current state of knowledge it can be argued that individuation at about fourteen days is of major significance. Striving for an absolute position should be avoided as scientific knowledge is relative and will change in the future.     

Humility,Virtue Epistemology,and the New Atheism

Most criticisms of the New Atheism are attempts at traditional apologetics. However, Christians who wish to defend the faith against the onslaughts of these critics might appeal to virtue epistemology by showing that the New Atheists do not possess the necessary habits of thought that a person would need to make a careful and thoughtful consideration of the evidence. In fact, the New Atheists fail to practice intellectual humility and this prevents them from genuine engagement with the strengths religion offers.     

The New Age in Cultural Context: The Premodern,the Modern and the Postmodern

This issue attends to a relatively ill‐explored, albeit culturally well‐established, topic. Serving to introduce the contributions, an initial task is to characterize the New Age. It is suggested that there is a dominant lingua franca, to do with ‘self religiosity’. Another task is to locate the New Age with reference to the premodern, the modern and the postmodern ‘conditions’. Arguing that the New Age has two main wings, and that it can also be used in consumeristic fashion, it is possible to tease out the various ways in which the three conditions have contributed to its development. Finally, attention is paid to the question of whether the New Age is of any real significance.     

心理契约:概念、理论模型以及最新发展研究

文章简要回顾了组织行为学中有关心理契约的系列研究,包括概念的提出,理论模型,分类及测量,探讨了该领域的主要理论体系及分歧、论辩焦点,对在新经济背景下心理契约的新变化．新发展以及相关研究做了阐述,并在最后对该领域理论发展的前景作了展望。     

CULTURE,COUNTING AND NUMBER CONSERVATION

Children from 3 remote village populations in Papua New Guinea were administered notational counting and number conservation tasks. The results replicate previous research conducted in the United States that shows children develop the use of counting to mediate the comparison and reproduction of sets prior to understanding number conservation. The significance of these findings is discussed with respect to current models of number development.     

Therapist competence, therapy quality, and therapist training

Large numbers of therapists worldwide wish to receive training in how to deliver psychological treatments. Current methods of training are poorly suited to this task as they are costly and require scarce expertise. New forms of training therefore need to be developed that are more cost-effective and scalable. Internet-based methods might fulfil these requirements whilst having the added advantage of being able to provide trainees with extensive exposure to the treatment as practised. New strategies and procedures for evaluating training outcome are also required. These need to be capable of assessing the therapist's knowledge of the treatment and its use, as well as the therapist's ability to apply this knowledge in clinical practice. Standardised role play-based techniques might be of value in this regard.     

Truth,authority and epistemological individualism in new age thought

Several problems are involved in studying the New Age, ranging from mapping its enormous diversity of beliefs and practices to locating it with reference to the conditions of modernity and postmodernity. With the latter issue in mind, the article is an analysis of understandings of truth and authority in the New Age. Against the assumption of some theorists, one of the central aims of the discussion is to demonstrate that, epistemologically speaking, the New Age is essentially a manifestation of modernity rather than postmodernity. Having established that, it is also shown that there are certain postmodern elements within the New Age network, as well as a superficial embracing of postmodernity and an emerging postmodern critique, all of which produce increasingly apparent tensions and confusion. The final section provides a critique of some of the principal problem areas.     

Two Careers, One Employer: Couples Working for the Same Corporation

Advances in career development research require scholars to move from analysis of the career paths of individuals to a life course approach to the interlocking career paths of couples. Increasingly, not only are U.S. workers married to other workers, but significant numbers of couples work for the same employer. Drawing on a subsample of employees in dual-earner households in five corporations in upstate New York (and their spouses), this study examines both the direct and indirect effects of being a coworker on career development, work circumstances, and spillover. Being part of a coworking couple positively predicts men's job prestige, tenure, and commitment to work (in terms of working long hours, heavy workload, etc.). These effects, as well as spillover, are most pronounced for younger men without children. For wives, coworking corresponds with increased income and increased spillover between work and family, especially for younger coworking women without children.     

Where New Age and African Religion Meet in South Africa: the case of Credo Mutwa

A recent development among New Agers in South Africa and abroad is an interest in African traditional religion. In South Africa these two divergent groupings meet in the work of the traditional healer, Credo Mutwa. This article explores the life and teachings of Mutwa who is renowned as ‘High Sanusi of the Zulu people’ as well as keeper of ancient wisdom, writer, poet, sculptor, painter, and authority in the fields of, among others, Zulu folklore, nature conservation, astrology and extraterrestrial life. Points of convergence and divergence among New Age thought and spirituality, African Traditional Religion and the unique interpretations of Credo Mutwa are examined. It is suggested that New Agers who focus on the glamour of the ecstatic experience of the ‘sangoma’ (isangoma, traditional healer/diviner) in exploring African traditional religion are depriving themselves of much of what African traditional religion and culture have to offer in terms of spiritual development. In this regard, some concluding remarks are offered on the fruitfulness of the concept of ubuntu (‘humanness’).     

Conservation studies in Papua New Guinea: A review

Among the most widely used measures of cognitive development are Piaget's tests of conservation. In general, children in Western cultures achieve conservation between the ages of about 7 and 11 years. In recent years considerable attention has been focussed on the performance of non-Western children. In Papua New Guinea the education system is based on the Western pattern and the assumptions underlying Western education have been adopted. These assumptions include many about the level of cognitive development achieved at various ages. The published research on conservation in Papua New Guinea is reviewed, and it is concluded that the performance of children in P.N.G. on conservation tasks is well below that of Europeans of the same age. Suggestions are presented for the development of more adequate standardised procedures for cross-cultural research in the area.     

Needs‐Based Assessment: A Model for Profiling,Assisting, and Empowering Job Seekers

Needs‐based assessment (NBA) was developed in New Zealand to assess job seekers’ capacity, willingness, and opportunity to find work. This article outlines the development of NBA from its theoretical underpinnings, evidence from a longitudinal study and the development of an employment adviser–administered computerized profiling tool, and the provision of self‐assessment and support tools. The authors argue that, with a rise in the number of unemployed job seekers and the long‐term unemployed, demands for government resources with less resources available to satisfy those demands, and the widespread adoption of social and interactive media, it is timely to revisit an NBA approach to job seeker profiling and targeted intervention.     

Early disruptive behavior,IQ, and later school achievement and delinquent behavior

A series of structural equation models is developed to examine the relationship between early externalizing behaviors (conduct problems, attention deficit) and IQ measured at age 8 years, academic achievement over the period 10 to 13 years, and delinquent behavior to the age of 15 in a birth cohort of New Zealand children. These models indicated that early externalizing behaviors and IQ were related to later academic achievement and delinquent behavior by two quite distinct but highly correlated developmental sequences. In one sequence early conduct problems were predictive of later delinquency but were not directly related to later academic achievement. In the other sequence, attention deficit and IQ were prognostic of later school achievement but were not directly related to delinquency. Further, the apparent correlations between academic achievement and delinquency were adequately explained by the common and correlated effects of early behavior and IQ on later achievement and delinquency. These conclusions remained unchanged when the sample was stratified by gender, and when further explanatory factors were introduced into the model.This research was funded by grants from the Health Research Council of New Zealand, the Canterbury Medical Research Foundation and the National Child Health Research Foundation.     

The Past,Present, and Future of Student Affairs: A Professional Profile of Theodore K. Miller

Theodore K. Miller began his career in 1957 as the counselor for men at the University of Florida and then worked as a counseling psychologist at the State University of New York at Buffalo starting in 1962. He left there 5 years later to start a student personnel program at The University of Georgia. During his 30 years at Georgia, Miller established a nationally recognized graduate professional preparation program and became one of the most prominent figures in the field of college student development. This profile focuses on the professional influences in his life and on his role in developing quality assurance measures for counseling and human development programs and for student affairs functional areas.     

Predicting Different Patterns of Sexual Identity Development Over Time Among Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Youths: A Cluster Analytic Approach

Recent research has suggested that the sexual identity development of lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) youths may not follow a single pattern, but may follow a variety of pathways. Although some research documenting variability in identity development exists, unclear are the potential individual and social contexts that predict these different patterns, as well as the contexts that predict changes in identity integration over time. This report longitudinally examined these issues in an ethnically diverse sample of 156 LGB youths (ages 14-21) in New York City. Cluster analytic techniques identified two patterns of sexual identity formation (i.e., early and more recent), and three patterns of sexual identity integration (i.e., high, middling, and low). Gender and sexual abuse were found to predict identity formation; and, gay-related stress, social support, negative social relationships, sexual orientation, sexual identity, and gender were found to predict patterns of sexual identity integration and changes in integration over 1 year. These findings document different patterns of sexual identity development and identify potential contextual barriers and facilitating factors that may be used to develop interventions to promote healthy LGB identity development.     

Discourse and Cognition. Edwards,D. (1997). Sage,London: pp. 368. £49.50 ISBN 0‐8039‐7696‐8 (hardback), £15.99 ISBN 0‐8039‐7697‐6 (paperback)

Wendy Drewery is a philosopher by training and teaches health development and counselling at the University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Depression, self-esteem, loneliness, and social support among adolescent mothers participating in the new parents project

The purpose of this pilot study was to examine levels of depression, self-esteem, loneliness, and social support, and the relationships between these variables, among adolescent mothers participating in the New Parents Project (formerly called the Young Parents Project). The sample consisted of 21 adolescent mothers recruited from three primary health care practices in different Midwestern cities. It was found that depression scores were in the high range (CES-DC > 15) for 53% of the participants. Strong, significant relationships were found, except between depression and self-esteem. The implications for enhancement of the New Parents Project, so as to better meet the psychological needs of adolescent mothers, are discussed.